Selecting 1 side of an edge loop in a mesh
As long as you don't have any other vertices hidden you can hide (H) the edge loop to have to separate parts of the object in edit mode. 

Then you can select one of the separate parts by using select linked (L). 

After that you can reveal (&#9095; AltH) the hidden vertices which are then selected automatically. 

Now you have everything to the right or left from the edge loop selected!

In this example the right side of the edge loop plus the edge loop itself are selected.



Note that if the part left and right of the edge loop are connected somewhere else this method won't work unless you hide the other connection as well (e.g. a torus).